Lentil Chicken

Sorry to any regular followers, for not posting for some time. I have been busy travelling and tasting yummy foods. Recently experimented a variant of Dhansak..... lets call it urad-chicken or lentil chicken.I tried cooking chicken with various lentils, but it comes out best with white split urad dal (matpe beans). A very quick, easy, nutrious recipe and very appealing to the taste buds too.

Ingredients--
White urad dal- 1 cup, washed and soaked for atleast 1/2 hour.
2 chicken breasts cut to bite size pieces.
1 medium onion diced
Ginger-garlic paste 1 tbsp
1 tsp each of cumin powder, corriander powder, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and garam masala.
Oil spray -1 noozle.
2 cardamom pod seeds.
2/3 bay leaves.
2 cups water
salt to taste.
lemon juice-1 or 2 tbsp.
2 green chillies split lengthwise.
chopped corriander leaves to garnish.

Method--
1. Marinade the chicken with a little salt, ginger-garlic paste , lemon juice and set aside for 15-30 mins.
2. Cook the lentils with the water(2 cups) and some salt(remember there is salt in chicken too). When cooked, mash them to form a thick liquid, set aside.
3. Heat a pan and spray with oil. When heated well, pop in the bay leaves and cardamom seeds.Fry until bay leaves turn golden.
4. Add the chopped onion and fry until you get a nice aroma.
5. Next add the marinated chicken and all the powder spices. Fry well moving them in the pan for about 5 minutes. See that all chicken is well coated with the spices.
6. When chickens are all sealed and nearly done, add the mashed lentils, stir well to mix with the flavours in the pan, add the split green chillies, and cook covered on low heat for another 5 minutes. If too thick, you can add some water at this point.check salt and add if more is required. Cook covered, until chicken is fully done. Keep stirring in between.
7. When done, turn off the heat and garnish with the chopped corriander.

8. Your lentil-chicken is ready. Serve with plain boiled rice or fried rice or roti, naan etc.... whatever you fancy. I served it with peas and carrots pulao.

Low Fat Easy Chicken Curry

Chicken tikka masala is Britain's favourite curry dish.I wanted to try a low fat version of this brilliant chicken dish.But instead of taking the big leap at one single step,as a first step, I tried appling my ways of cuting fat and get a decent chicken curry dish.My plan is, if successful in this, I'll expand my low-fat chicken curry ranges.

So my low fat and easy chicken curry version goes this way--

Ingredients

2 chicken breast fillet, cut into bite size pieces.
1 large onion pureed
2 tomatoes pureed
2 tbsp garlic-ginger paste
4tbsp plain low fat yogurt
1 tsp cumin seeds
1tsp each of cumin powder, corriander powder, red chilli powder and turmeric
1 tbsp garam masala powder
1 tbsp lime juice
salt to taste

Method

1.Marinate the chicken with the half of the ginger-garlic paste, lime juice, salt,cumin powder, corriander powder. set aside for approx. 30 minutes.
2. Grill the chicken in the oven, until sealed, and lightly cooked.Set aside.
3.Heat a pan and spray a noozle of spray oil.
4.Pop in the cumin seeds, when starts crackling,add the onion puree and the other half of the ginger-garlic paste.Fry until you get the nice aroma.
5. Add the dried spice powders, fry for about a minute.Add 2 tbsps of yogurt and fry well.
6. Add the pureed tomato and cook until reduced a little. Add salt to taste, remember there is a little salt in the chicken too.
7. Add the grilled chicken and mix well.
8. Reduce heat, and add the remaining yogurt.
If gravy is too thick, you can add a little water at this point.Mix well, and let cook for another2-3 minutes.
9. Curry is ready, serve & njoy. I served it with a simple peas and carrots rice.